Worst book you ever read???

reply to post by yeahright


Angels & Demons was nice. If they made a movie out of it, who do you think should play the Yoga practising scientist chick? Mmmm... yoga..

Anyway, my nomination for worst read ever -- Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. The guy takes forever to get to a point. Not surprising, since the point was to toss a ring into a volcano... not a remarkably complicated point. One has to fluff that up, somehow.

reply to post by AugustusMasonicus


I know, right?

I'm a big fan of beat generation novels and what not, and I went straight to that after "Post Office" and I caught myself going, "Whoa, whoa.... okay, wait, what?"

I should have eased into that book.

Originally posted by Beachcoma
Angels & Demons was nice. If they made a movie out of it, who do you think should play the Yoga practising scientist chick? Mmmm... yoga..

Could do a lot worse than Sandra Bullock, I'm thinking.

Anyway, my nomination for worst read ever -- Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

Oh no you didn't!!!

That's what makes the world go 'round I guess. We all like different stuff. I can pretty much check up on what that Michichoo Kakasami [or whatever her name is] from the NY Times recommends, and judiciously avoid it.

Beachcoma I think I love you!

I have rarely come right out and said Tolkein was one of the worst reads ever.

Thank you for having the courage to say it first.

Tolkin reads like butter compared to Stephen R. Donaldson. Talk about tedious explanation and detail...

Almost as bad as "Layouts, Foundations and Framing" by John E. Ball.

Now you're just being silly, whaaa. I'm re-reading the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant right now, because there are two new books. I loved them in high school, it remains to be seen if I still love them, considering I'm only two chapters in to Lord Foul's Bane.

MM, I'll tell Stephen you are a fan!! He lives a couple miles south of me and I see him occasionally at the Flying Star coffee house and at Johndees BBQ where I sometimes play the blues.

Yeah! Tell him he's lucky because MM doesn't like much of anybody!

Not like Tolkien? Heresy!!!! .

I've lost count of the number of times I've read LOTR, and the Hobbit, along with the Silmarillion.

Oh, well, different strokes I suppose.

Tolkien

Originally posted by seagull
I've lost count of the number of times I've read LOTR, and the Hobbit, along with the Silmarillion.

Wow, respect. I've lost count of the number of times I tried reading it. I now use it as a cure for my insomnia. It's either that or the movie Alexander. God, that was a dull movie -- the actual history texts were much better.

reply to post by seagull


Tolkiens LOTR was one of the first 'larger' books that I read, I believe I was 9 or so. It was enjoyable then and when I re-read it several times after that.

I recently moved into a new house and I am still in the process of restoring it. I eventually want a library to hold my collection but my fiance asked if I could dig out my copy of Perfume, by David Suskind-excellent book btw-for her to read. I agreed with the caveat that she read The Hobbit as well. She's a Potter fan and it ended updegenerating into that South Park episode where we called each other names because of her preference for Rowling and mine for JRR.

[edit on 6-11-2007 by AugustusMasonicus]

reply to post by Beachcoma

At least we agree that "Alexander" was horrible...I've never made it past a third of the way.

C'mon give it another try...I know you can doooo it. LOTR, not Alexander...lol.

reply to post by AugustusMasonicus


I like both authors. Rowling and Tolkien, are to me anyway, two of my favorites, right up there with Asimov, Poe, and Heinlien (sp?).

Augustus, please don't miss the film "Perfume" probably the best of O7.


Another unfavorite of mine.....

Frank Herberts "Dune"

reply to post by whaaa



I'd tried sooo hard to forget Herbert...thanks for nothing. All that therapy, done, useless...oooh, the horrors. It was not very good at all is the point I'm trying to make...

reply to post by whaaa


We did happen to catch it. Fantastic movie, very faithful to the book which I was happy about.

Speaking of Dune, I think that movie sucked more than Alexander, if that is possible.

'Cell' by Stephen King. My most loved and treasured author next to Steinbeck and Hemingway. I felt mentally raped afterwards. The same 'ol same'ol horrible bad guy wreaks havoc of the populace. Really needs some new material. Not a big fan of the Dark Tower series either. Although the killer lobsters was kind of cool.

After first seeing the movie "The Bourne Identity", I got a copy of Robert Ludlum's novel of the same name, thinking it would be good. After reading it, I tried to recall any other fiction or nonfiction work where it took the author so long (almost half the book) to get some momentum going. The first 100 pages or so were painfully difficult to make sense of, and depressing as well; from there, the main story of the novel became clearer and the storyline progressed, but by that time it was hard to enjoy the read because while I was reading I kept wondering if the author was going to take another dive into the deep whatever.

I bought a paperback copy of "Bourne Ultimatum" at the same time that I bought "The Bourne Identity". Now I'm trying to work my nerve up to read Ultimatum ... does anyone know if that one is worth a read?

"The Sum of all fears", the novel by Tom Clancy, was a somewhat similar experience. Heckuva long time to get to the point in the first 100 pages or so, then quite good from then on. Actually the guts of the novel, where they discuss the logic of nuclear non-proliferation agreements, is quite good; better in that respect than the movie, I'd say.

"The Cryptonomicon", by Neal Stephenson

It was awful. Just bloody awful. I've set down many a book to finish reading, but there are very few books in my life I've ever just given up on reading knowing I would never pick them up again. This book wins that dubious honor.

I like Stephenson as an author. Snow Crash was great. But Cryptonomicon is just a rambling, pointless, heavy book that sucks the life out of you as you read. After more than fifty pages of minute print, the lead character hadn't done anything more than go on trip to the beach and make out with some guy. And Stephenson hadn't even managed to make THAT much interesting. The constant switchback between World War II and present-day college students was dull, distracting, frustrating, and repetitive, and the only intrigue I found from the entire experience was being left wondering how the hell this ever made the New York Times Bestseller list.

[edit on 11/16/2007 by thelibra]

reply to post by Uphill


Well, if the book was any worse than the movies, I'll be sure to not even walk in a bookstore that contains the book.